Better to refurbish or buy new engine. Help!

This depends on a lot of variables. First here is a video that will help with how an engine works.

https://youtu.be/FcRyFHPZNQo

This is important to help understand how it works because depending on what has failed will determine the extent of the rebuild. If you have to completely rebuild the engine all the way down to the piston rings and conditioning the bores, then I would suggest finding a replacement engine.

The reason is labor costs these days is much higher than it used to be and so in a lot of cases it is cheaper to replace the engine. Plus, most replacement engines comes with a warranty.

However, if you just need to replace a head or maybe crank bearings then it will make sense to rebuild it. This is why it is critical to know what is needed for the rebuild. Most people these days use the term rebuild even though they are not dissembling the entire engine and rebuilding it, so it gets confusing.

Here is another video on a completely different engine that shows what I am referring too. Basically, if you have to remove the pistons, then I would just replace it.

https://youtu.be/ola8SuIx8S4

The last factor that really matters is the actual labor cost per hour. This is what is going to cause the rebuild cost to be higher. So, if they are over $100 per hour then I would just replace it.

Please run through this and let us know what questions you have. Thanks